The dangers of online shopping

With Christmas looming, there’s no doubt you’ll have a list of presents to buy your loved ones. If, like us, the thought of going shopping at this time of year sounds like a nightmare, you may want to opt for online shopping instead.

Although online shopping takes all the stress away from Christmas shopping, buying things over the internet brings dangers of its own. The web, as we are all aware can be a dangerous place, and as we set up accounts with different shops and retailers online, we must take extra steps to protect our accounts.

It is likely you will be shopping with different retailers, meaning you will be creating accounts with numerous online shops – all of which will have your bank details attached to them. To access these accounts all you need to do is enter your email address and password, meaning your password must be difficult to guess. Here are our tips to creating a safe password for your online shopping accounts.

Get creative with your password

Using just letters and numbers can produce a fairly simple password. To make it more complicated to guess, try entering various symbols, such as #, $ or &. This will make I very difficult to guess.

Use spaces in your password

Use a space between words or letters in your password. It might be a good idea to place these spaces in random places in a word. This may also be easier for you to remember than symbols.

Don’t repeat words in your password

Often, people believe that repeating letters will make their password safer, but this actually doesn’t make your password any stronger – only longer.

Don’t use family names in your password

This one may be obvious but people still continue to use certain names or dates that are important to them such as their children’s name or birthday. These dates can be easily guessed by fraudsters who may have searched for details about you online.

What’s your favourite film?

Something which is less easy to guess is one of your favourite film or song. This is most likely something only you and those close to you know the answer to and is unlikely you will forget it.

Make sure your password is long enough

The shorter the password, the less characters a fraudster has to guess. This is why you should try to use more than 8 characters in a password.

Use capital letters in your password

Try using both upper and lowercase letters to try and complicate your password. It’s a good idea to place these capital letters in random places throughout the password.

In order to remember your passwords, keep a note of them in a safe place where no one can find them or they can’t get lost. Alternatively, if you own a smartphone, there are various apps you can purchase which save all your passwords securely on your phone.

For more consumer news and advice, pick up the latest issue of Yours Magazine, out every fortnight on a Tuesday.